Reinforcing that there really is no place like home, the Peterborough Theatre Guild returns to very familiar ground this Friday (March 8) for its staging of Willow Quartet — the fifth presentation of the company’s six-play 2023-24 playbill.

In February, Showplace in downtown Peterborough was home away from home for the company as it presented a very successful run of the popular musical Fiddler On The Roof. Now it’s back to The Guild Hall on Rogers Street for Canadian playwright Joan Burrows’ drama about choices, consequences, and forgiveness.

“Doing a dramatic play after a musical is always a challenge because the musicals are always better known (to audiences),” assesses director Tami Whitley, acknowledging Willow Quartet is a more challenging box office sell in that sense.

“But this play has real touching human qualities to it,” Whitley adds. “You can relate to every character on that stage. You’ve got the jilted ex who isn’t happy with his situation and kind of wants to get back together with his estranged wife. You’ve got the new person who’s walked into this landmine situation completely unaware, and has to navigate the ins and outs of the various relationships.”

“Then you have a concerned mother who’s trying to do what’s best for her daughter — her grown daughter — and is having a frustrating time doing that. And then you’ve got the woman who is trying desperately to get through life day to day. There’s something we can all relate to in each of these characters.”

Burrows’ play tells the story of Kim (Tristina Haines) who, estranged from her husband Ben (David Adams) after a family tragedy three years earlier, seeks solace by moving back to her childhood rural farm home owned by her mother Marjorie (Laine Williams). She subsequently invites Jim (Peter Cain), a violinist in town for an arts festival, to stay at the farmhouse.

Much to the chagrin of both her mother and her estranged husband, Kim becomes infatuated with Jim, who helps her forget the tragedy that ended her marriage until her grief inevitably boils to the surface. With Jim at her side and under the watchful eye of Marjorie and Ben, Kim — who is continually haunted by the voice that comes from her favourite willow tree — struggles through her unresolved grief and eventually begins to explore her buried feelings.

“It’s a very uplifting story but it’s definitely a tragedy,” assesses Whitley, adding that “a strong cast” is especially key with such a small onstage ensemble.

“I especially want to give props to Peter (Cain), who stepped in as our musician (Jim). Halfway through the process, our previous actor backed out. Peter stepped up and it’s like he has been there from the beginning.”

“David (Adams), who is playing the estranged husband (Ben), is rock solid. I have learned so much watching him over the last few months. He has some of the most emotionally wrenching scenes and I’m practically in tears watching him.”

“Tristina (Haines), who plays our lead Kim, (has) got pages and pages of monologue but she has picked it up and gone with it, carrying it like it is so natural coming from her. And Laine (Williams) is doing a tremendous job (as Majorie), beautifully balancing snark and bite with care and softness.”

Based in Richmond Hill, playwright Burrows was an English and dramatic arts teacher with the York Region District School Board for 29 years. When her first play, 2004’s Staff Room, won two Association of Community Theatres Central Ontario awards, she retired and began her second career as a playwright.

Willow Quartet, meanwhile, won The Playwrights of Spring Award in 2009 and was work shopped at Theatre Aurora before premiering as a full production in 2011 at Papermill Theatre in Todmorden Mills in Toronto. Nine years later, it was reworked into a musical version and was nominated for the Tom Hendry Award.

A member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Burrows other plays include The Photograph, Four Hours, and Gloria’s Guy.

As for the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s production of Willow Quartet, it marks Whitley’s second turn as director of a Guild production. In October 2022, she directed Terry Gabbard’s one-act play Our Place.

“That was an extremely different experience,” she recalls of her directorial debut. “There were 14 actors and five individual scenes as opposed to one cohesive story. They all related to each other but they were snapshots of different people’s lives. But dealing with 14 actors in five-minute snippets versus directing four actors over two hours and 15 minutes is a bit different.”

“The camaraderie that’s developed between the four of them is something,” says Whitley of the Willow Quartet cast. “They get along and they talk to each other — ‘I don’t think we should be doing it this way. I don’t like this. This makes me uncomfortable.’ They work it out.”

“They say to me ‘We have a problem with this and this is what we thought. Could we try this?’ I’ll either say yes or no, and we’ll go ahead with things. They’re very respectful of me, and of each other, and of our stage manager (Hayley Griffin Montgomery). It’s wonderful to work with them.”

As for what she hopes audiences take away from Willow Quartet, Whitley says it’s her hope “they understand you can get through anything with time, patience, support and love. That’s the ultimate message, I think,” adding “It’s very emotional. We’ve had to have Kleenex on each side of the stage for the actors.”

Now, with final rehearsals underway, she says the week before opening has a well-deserved name.

“We call it Hell Week,” she explains. “You’re getting all of your tech in place. Every time something changes, you stop, you start, you stop, you start. Hell Week is a well-earned moniker. On Friday night, just before we open, I will be as excited as a kid on Christmas morning, no doubt. But up until then, we’ll have our noses to the grindstone, making everything come together.”

“This is actually a festival entry this year,” Whitley adds, referring to the annual spring festival of the Eastern Ontario Drama League (EODL). “We’re getting adjudicated on March 23rd, which is our closing night. Don’t believe for a second that hasn’t cost me some sleep.”

“There’s quite a bit of prestige of saying ‘I worked with the Peterborough Theatre Guild’ and knowing, in EODL circles, that people will recognize that name and say ‘Oh wow, that’s quality stuff’, that puts more pressure on me to put forward a good product. Of course, I want to do that regardless but I’m feeling more pressure because we’re getting adjudicated.”

When all is said and done, Whitley says Willow Quartet checks all the boxes that an emotion-evoking production should check.

“This is a wonderful show about family. It’s going to take you to the place that theatre is supposed to take you — to a new experience that’s a little bit out of your comfort zone, but not so much that you’re traumatized by it. It’s really just a great show.”

Willow Quartet runs at the Guild Hall at 364 Rogers Street in Peterborough’s East City for nine performances from March 8 to 23, with 7:30 p.m. evening performances on March 8 and 9, 14 to 16, and 22 and 23, and 2 p.m. matinee performances on March 10 and 17.

Tickets are $30 for adults, $27 for seniors, and $20 for students and are available by calling 705-745-4211 or online at www.peterboroughtheatreguild.com. The Peterborough Theatre Guild is offering a two-for-one ticket special for opening weekend (March 8 to 10) by using the promo code “Willow” online during checkout.

kawarthaNOW is a proud media sponsor of the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s 2023-24 season.

With often more than 100 people coming out to Drag Queen Story Time at the Peterborough Public Library, it’s easy to see the influence local drag performer 20-year-old Betty Baker has on an audience.

But her impact goes beyond the crowds she entertained whether she’s livestreaming her own baking show or hosting a drag bingo. It goes beyond the young people who see her as a role model, channelling her outfits, looks, and attitude. It even goes beyond the drag community that she has been fundamental in building in the region.

Beyond all of that, and no less significantly, she has brought joy to the person who exists beneath the polka dot dresses, platform heels, large wigs, and coloured eyeshadow. She has influenced Isaac Maker.

“Drag has made me a completely different person than I was before,” says Baker. “It has changed pretty much every aspect of how I feel about myself and how I navigate the world.”

A Peterborough native, Baker was always a creative individual, involved in theatre, music, and performing arts. Her call to drag came from watching RuPaul’s Drag Race at 14 years old, her first time being introduced to the artform.

“Starting drag was really magical because it opened up a new world of creativity for me,” she says. “I could use all the different talents that I had honed throughout my childhood and then continue to develop new talents.”

Over the course of the next year, her family was very “supportive” in helping her craft her stage persona, with her mother (or “momager”) Michelle Fenn taking her shopping for her first pieces of makeup.

“She really has inspired so many aspects of my drag, and working so closely with her has brought us together so much,” Baker says, noting that her grandmother also played an important role by helping her use a sewing machine to make her costumes. “It’s been a lovely and heartwarming experience getting to share this aspect of my creativity and myself with them.”

She recalls her mother encouraging her to create a character that was “classy” and “professional, but also very creative and very bubbly.”

“It was really just embracing that side of my personality that was already there,” says Baker.

When thinking about names, Baker knew she wanted a “catchy and quick” alliterative name and settled on Betty Baker — not realizing she had “stolen” it from her grandmother whose name is Betty Maker.

“I kept it because my grandma was a huge inspiration for me in terms of embracing this flamboyant side of myself,” says Baker. “We used to play dress-up with feather boas and heels and sequins — all the fun stuff. So, it’s kind of paying homage to those amazing women in my life who raised me and showed me what it’s like to be cool and awesome.”

Baker served up “executive realness” as Britney Spears during her first drag performance at just 15 years old for Trent University’s charity bingo. There, she watched her “drag mother” Sahira Q perform and recalls being “inspired by how amazingly she moved.”

Though Baker admits to having felt nervous before taking to the stage for the first time, she recalls the formative experience vividly.

“I came alive onstage. It wasn’t good by any means, but it was a lot of fun and that’s the spirit of drag,” she says. “It’s always fun and it’s always just about sharing an experience with other people and sharing that energy. That’s what I love about it.”

In the five years since that first show, Baker has come to learn exactly who Betty is, reducing the originally hours-long pre-show preparations down to just two hours in total. She now regularly crafts her own upcycled one-of-a-kind Betty Baker original costumes by browsing the bed sheet section at Talize.

“Now, to be honest, I think of drag more as a vessel to show off my designs through the costume aspect because that’s what inspires me the most,” she says.

Though Baker is currently living in Toronto, where she studies performance production at Toronto Metropolitan University, she can still regularly be found performing at events in the region and wouldn’t dare miss Drag Queen Story Time at the library.

Despite the protestors — who evidently have not shown up in months and are often faced with counter-protesters when they do — Baker says it’s essential for her to show up for the young people who need someone to look up to. From the queer children who come dressed as her, to the parents who say their child only comes out of their shell when at a Betty Baker show, the artist knows the influence she has.

“I’m not unaware that it’s a huge responsibility — being someone in the community that kids can look up to is major,” she says. “Growing up, I didn’t necessarily have someone in the community who looked like me that I could go see, so I definitely want to be that person for young kids who are queer or young kids who are different. It really does make a difference in those families’ lives.”

Only five years into her own career, Baker is now a drag mother herself — ironically to someone older than her, serving as a mentor to Banshii Waylön, a Peterborough and Ottawa-based up-and-comer. Baker uses her experience and knowledge not only to help them in the business side, but also the emotional and social side of the industry.

“Working with Banshii and younger or newer performers serves as a reminder to me that, even through I’m a keeper of knowledge in the community now, there’s still so much that I can learn from the people who are coming up in the scene,” says Baker.

“It really is wild to think that just five years ago I was doing the same thing: just showing up to a gig and having no idea what’s going to happen.”

All Baker’s experiences as a drag performer — from feeling supported by the community and her own family to being a role model for young people and new performers — has helped her see the correlation between the character she plays and the person she is when she steps off the stage as Isaac Maker.

“Betty started out as more of a character that I played and, in the beginning, I felt very disconnected from her — Isaac and Betty were two completely separate people that I was portraying at different times,” says Baker, adding that she couldn’t dress or walk with the same confidence as her persona. “Doing drag felt like an armour or shield, where it was a facade that I put on to protect what’s behind the makeup and the hair.”

“But as I’ve gotten older and have spent more time with Betty, I feel more than anything she’s becoming an extension of myself and I think that’s a really beautiful way to interact with the world.”

“It took me a while to get there but, now that I’ve embraced the idea that Betty is just as authentic as Isaac is, I carry that confidence and that loveliness and that outgoing personality throughout my day-to-day life as well,” Baker adds.

Baker will be serving that and more at her next Drag Queen Story Time coming to the Peterborough Public Library at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 18th.

“It really is such an incredible experience to be able to share stories and songs and joy with the families of Peterborough, and the fact that it makes an impact the way it does is just so fulfilling,” she says. “The stories make it all worth it, even with all the protesting and all the hate. If I can change just one family’s lives, that is everything to me.”

In March, Nozhem First Peoples Performance Place and Public Energy Performing Arts are presenting a limited-run performance by Toronto’s Chocolate Woman Collective that explores a dark time in the not-too-distant past when “Indians” were considered freaks and exotics.

Written and performed by Monique Mojica (Guna and Rappahannock) along with Barry Bilinsky (Metis/Cree), Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment reveals the ways in which things that are sacred in Indigenous societies became profaned for entertainment and profit.

For around 100 years beginning in the mid 19th-century, “freak shows” not only exploited people who had physical disabilities or unusual conditions or talents, but displayed people who were non-white as “undiscovered” humans. While the freak shows began as far back as the 16th century, they became extremely popular in the Victorian era both in the U.K. and the U.S., where they were presented as sideshows at travelling circuses, amusement parks, and more and continued into the 1940s.

In Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment, Mojica draws upon her own family’s experiences with the freak show. During the 1930s, Mojica’s mother and aunt — who would later become the founders of New York’s Spiderwoman Theater — worked the sideshow at the Golden City Amusement Park in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, New York.

Their tipi was next to the sword swallower, the bearded lady, and those with physical anomalies who performed as “freaks”. The two women posed in buckskins and feathers for the tourists and danced for the Boy Scouts.

“I started to look at sideshow and freakshow because I knew that my mother had been in a sideshow as a child, and my family had performed in the sideshow,” Mojica recalls. “So I started to look at some of the rage, resistance, shame, that my mother carried, and that she had passed on. And where I carry my mother’s shame, where I carry my mother’s rage. My mother uses that word, ‘freak’. She still says, ‘They’re lookin’ at me. They’re lookin’ at me like I’m a freak’.”

VIDEO: “Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment” trailer

Set during the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment highlights the juxtaposition between Indigenous people being very visibly displayed to settlers as freaks and exotics while that same settler society was trying to make Indigenous culture and heritage invisible, including through the deliberate concealment and erasure of the evidence marking their presence on the landscape — effigy mounds and earthworks that were not only brutally excavated and looted but also used as race tracks and amusement parks.

“Mojica mocks and topples colonial ways of knowing, historically so entwined with ethnographic harm and spectacle, while she plays with the stability of the colonial gaze in a staggeringly savvy way,” observes Jenn Cole, artistic director of Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space. “She also presences Indigenous (specifically Guna/Rappahannock) ways of knowing, ancestors, and earth mounds, and she models modes of ethical witnessing in ways that have changed me.”

Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment will be performed at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 8th and Saturday, March 9th at Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space at Trent University. Tickets are sold on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $5 to $50 and are available in advance at eventbrite.ca/e/i722219216117.

For more information about Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment and the artist collective behind the show, visit publicenergy.ca/performance/izzie-m-the-alchemy-of-enfreakment/.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a long-time media sponsor of Public Energy Performing Arts.